Saturday, August 24, 2013

New York Voices: Live

Fans categorizing jazz tend
to concentrate on the stars of the bands and combos, and the vocalists who
worked with such groups. Often overlooked are the vocal groups that have
gained fame, either as an attraction on their own, or as part of a big band.
Remember Glenn Miller’s Modernaires, and Tommy Dorsey’s Pied Pipers?

Such groups were — and are —
famed as artists in
their own right: Think of the Hi-Lo’s, Lambert,Hendricks & Ross, the Manhattan Transfer and New YorkVoices. All these groups did things in the jazz
genre that hadn’t been done before, and the latter two remain active. This
album features New York Voices,
with one of the world’s best big bands: the WDR Big Band
Cologne.

New York Voices began in 1987,
as an Ithaca College alumni group. The first generation was a quintet
consisting of two guys and three gals; today it’s a quartet with two guys and
two gals. Damon Meader, Peter Eldridge and Kim Nazarian are original members;
Lauren Kinhan is the newcomer. From 1989 through 2007, the ensemble released
seven albums; this album with the WDR Big Band is their first in almost seven years,
and marks their 25th anniversary.

The 10 tunes here include
four beautiful old standards (“Love Me or Leave Me,” “In the Wee Small Hours of
theMorning,” “Darn That Dream” and “Almost Like Being in Love”),
and two by Paul Simon (“Baby Driver” and “I Do It for Your
Love”), along with Oliver Nelson
and Mark Murphy’s “Stolen Moments” and three originals by members of the quartet.

The arrangements are
stunning. Each performer is outstanding as a soloist; their combined
efforts, harmonically and rhythmically, are fantastic. As for the WDR Big
Band, its reputation as the world’s best steadily working jazz orchestra is
absolutely accurate; the orchestrations and soloists are a match for anything
I’ve heard in years.

This is a fer-shur
Grammy winner, and an album that every jazz fan will adore.